Disability, basic health and welfare Children with Disabilities (Article 23 ) 56. Access to education for children with disabilities is severely limited in the atolls. Schools throughout Maldives lack resources to accommodate all forms of disabilities and many children with various forms of disabilities are not enrolled in the schools. Most of the visually and hearing impaired children in Maldives do not have easy access to education as most such schools are located in the capital and schools in other islands do not accommodate such children.90Moreover, there are Special Education Needs (SEN) classes in schools of atoll capitals. However, geographical and financial difficulties make it impossible for children in other islands to attend those schools as they will have to travel by sea everyday, which is difficult and not affordable for most parents. Furthermore, many parents refuse to send children with disabilities to school because of the negative societal attitudes towards such children.91 57. Human Right Commission of the Maldives conducted a National Inquiry on Access to Education for Children with Disabilities during 2012 and 2014. The findings of the pre‐visits to the inquiry show that children with disabilities get bullied in schools. It also shows that teachers in general are not given trainings to identify disabilities at an early stage and parents lack awareness too about forms and signs of disabilities. Also, schools are not designed with accessibility to disabled children and toilets are not accessible to physically disabled children and lack resources like trained teachers and educational material for various disabilities. 58. Available statistics show that 5769 children with disabilities benefited from government’s welfare system from 2008 to 2014.92 According to school statistics published by Ministry of Education a total of 1279 students were enrolled in SEN classes from 2008 to 2014. 59. There is limited knowledge of disability related issues among government staff. The social service workers and counselors working in the Family and Children Services Centers have received only basic training on disability.93Health Centers in atolls lack equipments and resources necessary to provide adequate healthcare for persons with disabilities and health centers in general lack a system to identify disabilities at an early stage. 94 However, in 2015, National Institute of Education (NIE) introduced Early Intervention Centre in schools as a nationwide program to identify and provide necessary support for children with special needs.95 60. The Baseline Assessment on Activities Addressing Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Disabilities Report) undertaken by the HRCM in 2010 concluded that, one of the major service gaps for people with disabilities is limited access to premises and to public transportation. The assessment further states that the roads, pavements, road signs and traffic lights are not designed as friendly for persons with disabilities. The assessment proposed recommendations to address the issues of accessibility for persons with disabilities, most of which have not been implemented to date. Many public buildings including schools in some islands are still not accessible to persons with disabilities. 96 Ministry of Law and Gender have made a ‘Disability Minimum Standard’ under Disability Act 08/2010, in order to make sure that all public buildings are designed in a way that persons with disabilities can have access to them which is yet to be effectively implemented. 61. The few available rehabilitation services for persons with disabilities in the atolls are extremely expensive and cannot be afforded by most parents. Moreover, even these services are not available Page 14 of 39